


Don't judge a girl on how she looks

by anna_chronistic



Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Dark subject matter, Depression, F/M, Gangs, Low Self-Esteem, Mild Comic Relief, cosette is the sole voice of reason, identity theft, marius also learns a lesson, some violence, éponine learns a lesson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2019-11-12 04:56:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18004202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anna_chronistic/pseuds/anna_chronistic
Summary: In which Éponine gains shapeshifting powers





	1. Rather Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Éponine, impoverished and forced into a life of crime, is not content with her life. Soon after, she gains a mysterious power that might aid her in this situation.

**21 April, 1832 9:47 pm at the convent**

"So, would you rather travel 100 years into the past or 100 years into the future?" Cosette asked her friends Renée and Marie-Andrée. Almost all the other girls were asleep, but these three were still up chatting quietly.

"I would love to live in the baroque period, perhaps meet Johann Sebastian Bach. But the future seems much more adventurous, so I would go 100 years in the future," said Renée.

"I agree. In school, why do we have to take history classes to learn about events that already happened? If there were a class called 'future', I'd enroll myself immediately!" said Marie-Andrée.

"I've a question for you two," said Renée. "Would you rather wake up as someone completely different, or wake up in ten years as yourself?"

"I would rather wake up in ten years as myself," said Cosette.

"I am not liking the ten year time discrepancy, but I guess I'd want to wake up as myself too. Is there even a right answer for this?" said Marie-Andrée.

"In a way. If someone desperately wants to be someone else, then perhaps their own life is miserable and they're depressed," said Renée.

Then the girls heard someone walking down the hallway.

"It is nearly 10 o'clock. Candles out, girls," said sister Delphine.

Cosette went to bed wondering what her life would be like in ten years and smiled, having a positive outlook on the hypothetical scenarios that her friends at the convent had discussed.

**27 May, 1832**

Éponine felt trapped. She and her family lived a life of poverty and crime, one that the children were basically forced into. Her father had no love for any of his children at all, seeing them only as pawns in various futile schemes to con people. Éponine was the only one who was not afraid to defy him, probably because she did not care what bad things would happen to her, or even if she lived or died. Yet she wanted out so badly, wishing that she were anyone else besides herself. She was a pathetic thing to look at too: less than 1.5 meters tall with an emaciated frame, tattered clothing, and a few missing teeth. She knew that she was ugly and that there was nothing she could do about it.

This day, Thénardier had gotten his daughter Azelma to rob an antique store near the plaza in the Latin Quarter.

"So what do you got?" Thénardier demanded.

"Nothing. I returned the items that I stole because I was caught," Azelma said.

"Then why didn't you just run off with them?!"

"I-I couldn't do it. I'm sorry," she said, now fearing another beating.

"An apology is no excuse for being a bloody idiot!" Thénardier raged, and slapped Azelma across the face.

"Don't touch my sister!" Éponine yelled, and shoved him away from Azelma.

This was enough for him to lose his temper and get into a full-fledged fight with Éponine. He punched and kicked her, and she fought back although the odds of her winning were futile. She was no match for him. He grabbed her by the hair and slammed her face against a wall.

After that, she could taste blood in her mouth. She soon realized that she had lost another tooth. She took it out of her mouth, in tears, and threw it on the ground angrily.

"Shit!" she cursed.

"That's what you get, you worthless whore!"

"Shut up! I hate you!" Éponine cried and ran off.

~~

The city of Paris was a drastic juxtaposition of bourgeois on casual strolls and beggars on the street. One boy who Éponine knew, Marius Pontmercy, had a habit of staring at bourgeois girls from afar for some reason. But this one in particular looked familiar. She looked like an older version of a girl Éponine had seen before. And she was with a man who looked old enough to be her grandfather or great-uncle.

It now dawned on her. That was Cosette, the girl whose mother her parents had conned years ago. And the man with her was that mysterious person who took her away from the Thénardier inn back in 1823. Now a bourgeois girl, she had made a dramatic change from the unpaid, abused child-worker at the inn. Éponine had no idea how this was possible. If only Éponine could make as great of a comeback as Cosette had.

Cosette and the man (perhaps her father) disappeared around a corner, and Marius ran across the street without looking to catch up.

"She is so pretty," Marius said, giddy.

"Understood," Éponine said.

"We made eye contact the other day, and I think she loves me. She's gorgeous."

"You already said that," Éponine said matter-of-factly.

"I want to know where she lives," Marius declared.

"Why don't you ask her father then?" Éponine asked.

"It is too risky. Every time he sees me, he goes the other direction with his daughter."

"Could you wait until she is old enough to move out of her father's house?"

"Probably not. She could forget about me in that amount of time," he said. "I think the best way to go about this is to be stealthy."

"So you really would appreciate it if I found out where she lives?"

"Yes, absolutely. If you have any trouble reading any of the street signs, I can help," Marius said.

"For the hundredth time, I can read," Éponine sighed.

"I keep on forgetting that," Marius admitted.

"I wasn't always poor, you know," Éponine explained. "My parents used to run an inn in Montfermeil. Had they not been corrupt scoundrels, our entire family would be well-off today and I would be beautiful. So it's my parents' fault that I'm poor, not mine!"

"Whatever you say," Marius said in a monotone voice, somewhat annoyed. This was followed by a short period of awkward silence.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" Éponine asked out of the blue.

"I am not going to answer that question," Marius said.

"You don't like me because you think I'm ugly?" Éponine asked.

"I don't hate you. It's just that you _are_ a street gamine, and—"

"And you think I'm ugly."

"Again, I refuse to answer that question."

"It is the easiest question ever. Just say yes or say no," she cajoled.

"I am not technically required to give any information regarding my opinion on your looks."

"Oh no. Do not use your lawyer tricks on me!" Éponine said, frustrated.

"I must remain silent because anything I say will definitely be used against me!"

"I was just wondering if you thought I was pretty," she said, disgruntled and looking at the floor. She had all but given up trying to coerce Marius into answering a question that she already knew the answer to.

"I will not be responsible for the self-esteem of a teenager," Marius said bluntly.

"Teenager? You are only five years older than me."

"Even so, I am not changing my mind. If you really want an opinion, ask someone else." Marius said.

And with that, she walked away, disappointed.

~~

After arriving at the run-down Gorbeau house, Éponine walked past a broken mirror in the room.

Éponine saw her reflection and cried.

She saw the empty space where her newly-knocked-out tooth used to be. She saw the gaunt, sunken-in angles of her face, which was covered in dirt. Then she remembered how much happier she was in the past.

"Look what's become of me," she said to herself. "I hate myself."

She went to bed, even though sleeping had been difficult for her the past few years.

**28 May, 1832**

When Éponine woke up, she felt as if she were on another planet.

Her appearance was drastically different than it was before. Here eyes were blue instead of dark brown. Her brown hair was curly instead of straight. She was taller than she had been the previous day and felt physically stronger. Her lips were pink and fuller. The slits on her left wrist were gone and all of her teeth were intact. She was wearing a fine turquoise dress with a custom-made bonnet instead of a threadbare beret.

She knew who she was: Cosette.

Her wish to be someone else had finally came true. The comparison between her and Cosette was like night and day. She turned into her old self, then transformed into Cosette again, and finally went back to herself. It became apparent that she had acquired some sort of shapeshifting power. After she realized this, she knew exactly the first thing she was going to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- 1.5 meters is around 4'11"  
> 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Éponine takes care of some unfinished business.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So in this story, when Éponine shapeshifts into another person, she acquires their clothes as well.

Éponine knew the areas of the city that her father and his gang tended to frequent. He liked to hide in the alleys, away from most passers-by in the busy streets, where he would rob people at knifepoint or even worse. She would not tolerate his antics anymore. For the safety of her siblings, herself, and many others who might fall victim to him in the future, she was determined to stop him. Despite what others might say, she was clever. Surely she could find a way to use her newly-acquired shapeshifting powers to execute a plan to get him off the streets once and for all.

In order to aid in accomplishing this mission, she transformed into the toughest cop in Paris: inspector Javert.

Éponine was now posing as a man who was in his fifties, and yet was still on the police force. He wore military style boots and, as she had noticed, carried a pistol in the pocket of his greatcoat. For once in a very long time, she did not feel looked down upon. This was also in a literal sense: from her new perspective as the police inspector, everyone else looked short. Best of all, no one assumed her to be a crook or a dimwitted person solely based on her appearance. She somewhat enjoyed being him, probably because she believed she would enjoy being anyone else besides herself. Or her father.

She spotted him in an alley, just as she expected. While he technically was not doing anything criminal at the moment, she made no hesitation to put him under arrest, no questions asked. She did not need a good reason to arrest him right this second if she already knew what he had done.

"Do not move, Thénardier!" she said, drawing a pistol.

"Oh shit," Thénardier said.

"You're under arrest for assault, robbery, larceny, and fraud," Éponine said in a much deeper voice than her own.

"And child abuse," she said, remembering how he treated Cosette. "And myriads of things that I have not even thought of yet!"

"How do you know this?" Thénardier asked nervously. This was the first time she'd seen him nervous in years.

"I am a good investigator, Étienne. I know all about you," she said in a flippant condescending tone.

"What the hell? How do you—Get off me, you bloody copper!" he said, thrashing at and punching who he thought was a cop.

Now that she was over six feet, fighting came much easier to her. She was winning the fight against her father, where usually she would be losing. She finally handcuffed him and held him there for a few minutes until a fiacre came.

"You're coming with me!" she said, restraining him and forcing him into the fiacre headed to the police station.

A few kilometers in, they passed by Cosette and the old man from the other day. Upon seeing her in the fiacre, the man appeared to be spooked.

"Come on, Cosette," he said. "Hurry up!"

Cosette, a bit confused, joined along with the old man and ran around the corner quickly. They were out of view within a few seconds. Why was that man afraid of Javert?


End file.
